JOHN 14.2-3: In my Father’s house are many rooms. If it were not so, would I have told you that I go to prepare a place for you? (3) And if I go and prepare a place for you, I will come again and will take you to myself, that where I am you may be also. (ESV)
Jesus reveals to His disciples that the dwelling place of God is a place of abundant living space. And Jesus revealed that He is going before His disciples to Heaven to prepare the place for them to live. In Revelation 21.16, the city of the new Jerusalem, the heavenly Jerusalem, is of an incomprehensible scale. This new, heavenly Jerusalem is described as being an area that is approximately 1500 miles long and wide and high. The Interpreter’s Dictionary of the Bible says that a stadion was 215.5 yards long. And in all of these directions it is to be 12,000 stadia.
I’m guessing many commentators and interpreters hold that the description in Revelation of the new Jerusalem is symbolic in character. And maybe it is. But whether it is symbolic or literal, the scale and size represented thereby takes effort to grasp. It is a place of great capacity for countless people to live. For example, in literal two dimensional terms, it is a geographic area of 2.25 million square miles. Stated another way, it is 1.44 billion acres. And when the height of 1500 miles is multiplied to the area, the living space of the new Jerusalem is pictured as enormous.
And Jesus promises that even though the time is soon coming that He will leave them, He is going ahead of them, pioneering the way and path to heaven and this new Jerusalem. The path for Jesus will require His death on the cross, His resurrection, His revelation to Mary Magdalene and the other Mary and the disciples and many other people, and His ascension into Heaven.
And His promise is that He will return for a second time and take them to be with Him. Without any consideration of who will live where in Heaven, this promise is also applicable to all believers in Jesus.